Fire repellent pile fabric



April 22, 1941. w. A. G'IBBONS 2,239,457

FIRE REPELLENT PILE FABRIC Filed Feb. 10, 1939 ATTORNEYS Patented Apr.22, 1941 FIRE REPELLENT PILE FABRIC Willis A. Gibbons, Montclair, N.

United States Rubber Compan J., assigner to New York,

N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application February 10, 1939, SerialNo. 255,592

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a fire repellent pile fabric consisting of anon-combustible ground fabric provided With a pile surface, and 'also to.a cushion or` the like of inflammable material which is coveredwithsuch fire repellent fabric. Cushions formed of rubber, textilefibers and other organic materials are `extensively used in automobilesand'in airplanes and for various other purposes and such cushions arecommonly provided `with a protecting covering fabricl consisting of awoven ground fabric having a pile surface. These .protecting fabrics asconstructed heretofore constitute an ornamental covering for theunderlyingcushion material and serve to protect the same from wear, butwhen such covering fabrics are formed of wool, cotton, or other textilefibers as heretofore they are inammable, and therefore do not afford theunderlying cushion material any substantial protection againstcombustion in case of fire.

When the underlying cushion is constructed of inflammable material and afire occurs of sufficient intensity to ignite this material, then thecushion simply supplies added fuel to thereonflagration. The presentinvention contemplates a simple and practical construction whereby thefire hazard caused by the combustible nature of the cushion material maybe greatly reduced, and also contemplates a fire repellent pile fabricwhich may be employed for various purposes.

One important feature of the present invention resides ,in a. firerepellent pile fabric comprising,

a non-combustible ground fabric formed of asbestos threads, spun glassfilaments or other inorganic (threads, and having a pile surfaceprovided atone face thereof.

Another important feature of thepresent yinvention residesin a cushionor the like formed of rubber, textile fibers or other organic materialwhich is more orless inflammable, and which` cushion is provided withy aprotecting fire repellent cover consisting of a non-,combustible ground,fabric formed of spun inorganic threads or of non-metallic inorganicthreads and lvhaving a pile or other soft ornamental surface adaptedA toprotect the underlying ground fabricfrom l wear.

known manner to producefa pile fabric such as commonly used heretoforeas an upholsteryv cover for cushions and the likeexcept that the groundfabric in accordance with the present invention The 4fire repellentpilefabricherein conterni plated may be Woven inany preferred orl WellA A isformed of `non-combustible threadssuch as" spun asbestos threads,'spurrglass threads or other threads formed of inorganic fibers orfilaments of non-continuous length arranged so that the ends of thefilaments overlap and are formed into a thread by a, spinning ortwisting operation. It is also contemplated that said ground fabric maybe made in whole or in part of unspun or continuous glass filaments.

The non-combustible ground fabric just described, in accordance with thepresent invention, is provided with a much softer protecting wearsurface, which in most cases constitutes a pile formed of wool or othertextile bers commonly used heretofore to form the pile tufts of a pilefabric. The present invention, however,V

contemplates that in some cases, the pile tufts as well as the groundfabric may be formed of non-combustible threads or filaments. I

If a cushion formed of rubber or other inflammable material is coveredwith the `fire repellent pile fabric herein contemplated, and lsthereafter exposed to re, the wool or other organic fibers forming thepile surface of the covering fabric will be burnt or charred if thetemperature to which it is subjected is sufficiently high. But thenon-combustible ground fabric will remain intact to form a protectingscreen overlying the combustible material of the cushion, and while suchnon-combustible ground fabric may not in all cases prevent theunderlying inflammable material from catching flre, it will neverthelessafford ythe cushion material a large amount of protection againstcombustion, thus greatly reducing the fire hazard.`

The above and other features of theinvention will be further understoodfromthe following description when-read in connection with theaccompanyng` drawing illustrating good,v practical forms of theinvention.

In the drawing- Fig. 1 on an enlargedy scale isav longitudinal sectionalviewthrough a piece 'of pile fabric con- Fig. 2 is a `front view of acushionA such asis commonly vused as `an automobilefseat, havin thepresent invention applied thereto; and l sectional view Fig. 3 on alarger scale is'a through the jcushionof Fig. 2.

The 'firerepell'ent pile fabric fof" thep-resent may as above stated, beconstructed invention,

.in any suitable or well known manner-"so far as f V,the interweavingofthe warp-and weft threads is concerned and thesecuring of the'piletuftsA thereto, provided'the threads used inmaking the I ground fabricare sufliciently non-combustible to afford the protection lagainst firecontemplated by the present invention.

The fabric` illustrated in Fig. 1 is constructed of a ground fabricformed of the interwoven warp threadsl l and weft threads I I. Thisground fabric is shown as provided with the pile forming tufts I2 whichare secured to the ground fabric by the weft threads Il about which thetuft loops lare bent in a well known manner. This showing of the fabric,however, is to be considered as more or less conventional since in thesimple construction illustrated the pile forming tufts I2 wouldnot befirmly anchored to the ground fabric unless some form of bindingmaterial were employed to help hold them in place.

The warp threads l0 and weft threads Il are preferably but notnecessarily formed of spun asbestos threads such for example ascontemplated by the B. H. Foster Patent 2,089,021 granted August 3,1937, for Asbestos yarn. It is contemplated, however, that other andcoarserI asbestos threads than those covered by the patent justmentioned may be employed. It is also contemplated that other spunthreads of non-combustible inorganic fibers or fllamcnts may be used incarrying out the present invention such for example as spun glassthreads formed of non-continuous lengths of glass nbers or filamentsarranged in overlapping relation and spun by a twisting operation intothreads, which may be used as the warp threads l0 and weft threads I I.

' In some cases it may be desirable to form the non-combustible portionsof the fabric of Fig. 1 of non-metallic inorganic threads such forexample as continuous glass filaments.

The pile forming tufts l2 are preferably formed of wool or other textilethreads such as have been commonly used pile tufts of the type of pilefabrics commonly used in upholstery work, but since wool and othertextile fibers are more or less combustible, it may in some cases bedesirable to form these pile tufts I2 also of non-combustible inorganicthreads similar to those employed to form the warp 'threads Ill and weftthreads Il.

vThe pile fabric of Fig. 1 may be used for various purposes but it hasbeen developed more particularly for use as an upholstery covering forautomobile cushions or the like, such as shown in Fig. 2 wherein theentire cushion is shown as covered with the pile fabric material ofFig. 1. This however is better illustrated in Fig. 3% wherein the rubberor other soft material of which the cushion is constructed is designatedby I3 and this cushion material is shown as covered by the pile fabricof Fig. 1. The cushion material I3 may be formed of sponge rubber,cellular rubber or various textile materials capable of providing thedesired softness. In the present construction the appearance and feel ofthe cover for the cush1on need not diifer from that of the pile fabriccover of the cushions commonly employed heretofore,

' since the pile tufts l2 in the present construction may be formed ofexactly the same material as the pile tufts commonly vused heretofore,and while the non-combustible ground fabric IU, Il differs from thatemployed heretofore it is protected and concealed by the pile surfaceI2.

Should an automobile, airplane or the like equipped with cushions suchas shown in Fig. 2 be involved in an accident resulting in aconnagration, the textile fibers forming the pile tufts l2 may bequickly burned away but the remaining non-combustible ground fabricformed of the heretofore in forming the threads I0 and Il would affordthe underlying combustible material I3 a large amount of protection.Such protection results in part from the confining of the cushionmaterial by the ground fabric and in part to the filtering' or screeningaction of the woven non-combustible fabric which retards the penetrationof -the ame therethrough to ignite the underlying cushion material. Evenif the underlying material should catch fire the conflning and nameretarding action of the non-combustible ground fabric, I0, Il wouldretard the spread of the combustion and tend to extinguish the ame.

It will be seen from the foregoing that through the present inventionthe re hazard resulting' from the usel of inammable materials in theconstruction of cushions may be greatly reduced without in any waydetracting from the appearance, feel or wear protecting properties ofthe pile fabric upholstery material herein employed to cover suchcushions. It will also be understood that the fire repellent materialherein contemplated may be used as a covering or protecting fabric forvarious objects.

It is desired to point 'out that the word spun` has been employed hereinin the specificationI and claims to describe the well known operation offorming a thread or yarn from non-continuous i overlapping fibers orfilaments by a twisting operation which unites the fibers and holds themfrom slipping lengthwise of each other as in a spun cotton yarn, andthat the word spun as herein used does not mean the production of acontinuous filament by an extruding operation.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desireto protect byLetters Patent is:

1. A re repellent pile fabric, comprising a woven non-combustible groundfabric formed of spun Warp and weft threads of non-metallic, inorganicbers and having pile threads interlocked therewith to form a protectingpile surface overlying the non-combustible ground fabric.

2. A fire repellent pile fabric, comprising a woven non-combustibleground fabric formed o! asbestos warp and weft threads and having pilethreads interlocked therewith toform a protecting pile surface overlyingthe non-combustible ground fabric.

3. A non-combustible pile fabric, comprising a woven ground fabricformed of spun warp and weft threads of non-metallic, inorganic fibersand having spun pile threads of inorganic fibers interlocked therewithto form a protecting pile surface overlying the non-combustible groundfabric.

4. A fire repellent-upholstery fabric, comprising a wovennon-combustible ground fabric formed of spun warp and weft threads of nonmetallic, inorganic bers and having pile threads interlocked therewithto form a protecting pile surface overlying the non-combustible groundfabric.

5. A nre repellent upholstery fabric, comprising a woven non-combustiblegroimd fabric Aformed of interwoven asbestos threads and having pilethreads interlocked therewith to form a protecting pile surfaceoverlying the non-combustible ground fabric.

6. A nre repellent upholstery fabric comprising a woven non-combustibleground fabric formed of interwoven asbestos threads and having a softer,wear-resisting surface formed of textile threads attached to the groxmdfabric to form a pile surface, that protects the ground fabric fromwear.

7. A nre repellent -pile fabric, `comprising a woven non-combustibleground fabric formed at woven ground fabric formed of interwovennonleast in part of non-metallic and non-combustible metallic,inorganic, non-combustible warp and inorganic threads, and having pileforming weft threads, and having pile forming threads itithreadsinterlocked with the ground fabric to proteriocked with the groundfabric to form a provide a protecting pile surface overlying the non- 5tecting pile fabric overlying the ground fabric. combustible groundfabric,

8. A re repellent pile fabric, comprising a WILLIS A. GIBBONS.

